Hello and welcome to NewsA. We're coming to you live with Rebecca Kesbby in London and me, James Kamara Sami in Berlin.

I'm in the German capital on an evening when the political pendulum in Europe's largest economy has swung decisively from left to right.

This broadcast position is looking out over the

Brandenburg Gate, a monument often illuminated in the colours of a country's flag to show solidarity

in moments of tragedy. Tonight, we don't know which combination of political colors will enter the

next German government, but we do know who will lead it. Friedrich

Merz of the centre-right Christian Democrats. According to the latest vote projections from today's

general election, Mr. Mertz's party, together with its Bavarian sister party, the CSU, is expected

to get around 28.5% of the vote in second place, currently with a historically high result

of 20.5% the far-right AFD. The big losers, the Social Democrats, or SPD of the outgoing

Chancellor Olaf Schultz. Three months after his fractious coalition collapsed, his party's vote went the same way today,

down by 10 points from four years ago.

The SPD's worst-ever post-war result, and not one that Mr. Schultz could sugarcoat.

This is a bitter election result for the SDP. It is an election defeat. I think that must be stated clearly and unambiguously at the outset.

For me, it is also very important to say that this is a result from which we must move forward

together. Shunned by Germany's traditional parties, but supported by a fifth of the German electorate,

the AFD, are now clearly the main opposition, the

CDU reiterated tonight, that it will not enter into coalition with a party whose anti-immigration

platform has traditionally been considered too extreme for government. But that will have come

as no surprise to a triumphant-sounding AFD leader, Alice Weidel.

We have achieved a historic result. We've never been stronger in government. We've become

the second strongest force as the alternative for Germany, and we've now firmly established

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